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WASHINGTON, D.C., October 12, 2021 —More than 20 patient and health care groups sent a letter to Congressional leadership and the Administration today making clear the need to preserve the nation’s first-ever ... to have access to it.   “Our organizations have long fought to ensure that patients have access to care to treat their serious illnesses and health conditions. Being able to take time off work is fundamentally an access to care issue, and our current patchwork system of paid and unpaid ...

... the findings showed while states have made considerable progress over the last decade in enacting policies that enhance access to pain care for patients with serious illness, this progress has slowed, and in some states reversed, in recent years. The report, Achieving Balance in ... (PPSG) prepared the report, which was jointly funded by ACS and ACS CAN. As a nation we must enact sensible policies to curb the growing public health crisis of opioid abuse, while at the same time recognizing the needs of cancer patients and survivors who have debilitating pain and must ... manager for the PPSG. "It is also important that new policies don 't impose undueξtreatmentξbarriers that affect important doctor-patient health care decision-making. The 2016 report found while there is some continued improvement in patient access to quality pain treatment, states ...

... today, many state legislatures are missing opportunities to enact laws and policies that could not only generate new revenue and long-term health savings, but also save lives. This yearŠ—'s report ranked where states stand on nine issues that play a critical role in reducing cancer ... for minors Physical education time requirements Breast & cervical cancer early detection program funding Pain policies Access to palliative care Medicaid expansion A color-coded system is used to identify how well a state is doing. Green represents the benchmark position, showing that a ... 38 states have reached benchmarks in only three or fewer. In most cases, small upfront investments by a state can save millions of dollars in health care costs in the long run. In fact, we know we could prevent roughly half of all cancer deaths in the United States if everyone in America ...

... (ACS CAN) supports balanced initiatives contained in the legislation that will expand research on chronic pain at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), strengthen prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) across the country, and create a task force to review chronic pain prescriber guidelines. ACS CAN acknowledges the public health emergency that exists today as a result of inappropriate use of opioids and the harms associated with such use. ACS CAN will continue to support balanced public policies that address addiction while maintaining access to necessary pain care for individuals fighting pain from cancer and other diseases and conditions. Debilitating pain affects thousands of Americans and interferes ...